Labor and Employment Relations Association
LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ASSOCIATION CONSTITUTION
1. NAME. This Association shall be known as the Labor and Employment Relations Association.
2. PURPOSE. The purposes of this Association are:
a. the encouragement of research in all aspects of the field of labor, employment, and the workplace, including employer and employee organization, employment and labor relations, human resources, labor markets, income security, and related fields, including their international and comparative dimensions in all pertinent disciplines—industrial relations, history, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, law, management, labor studies, and others;
b. the promotion of full discussion and the exchange of ideas between and among all constituencies— academic, labor, management, neutral, and public—on the planning, development, conduct, and results of research in these fields and the usefulness and application of the research to practice and policy;
c. the dissemination to researchers, practitioners, and the public, through various meetings, materials and publications, of research results, discussions and exchanges; and ideas of interest to the membership;
d. the improvement of the materials and methods of instruction in these fields.
e. The Association will assume no partisan position on questions of policy in these fields, nor will it commit its members to any position on such questions.
f. The Association affirms its support for fundamental worker and human rights in the workplace and for the rights of employees, employers, and their organizations to full freedom to organize and administer their activities and to formulate and pursue their lawful purposes.
3. MEMBERSHIP. In accordance with the Bylaws, membership shall be open to anyone interested in the purposes of the Association.
LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ASSOCIATION
BYLAWS
I. Membership
1. Any person interested in its purposes may, upon payment of dues, become a member of this Association.
2. There shall be the following classes of members: Regular Members; Family Members (living at the same address as another member, but not receiving the publications of the Association); Student Members (graduate and undergraduate students, limited to four consecutive years in each classification); Emeritus Members (who have been members for 10 years or more and who are not gainfully employed); Foreign Members (from countries other than the United States and Canada); Contributing Members (who provide additional support for the research volume); Non-voting Organizational Members; and Non-voting Institutional and Library subscription members. Persons who paid dues for 1948 have been designated Charter Members of their respective classifications.
3. Every member except a Family Member is entitled to receive the publications issued by the Association during membership. Special publications may be offered to members at a discount.
4. The dues schedule may be changed at the discretion of the Executive Board.
II. Officers
1. The Association shall have the following elective officers: a President, a President-Elect, and fourteen elected members of the Executive Board. The immediate past President serves as a voting member. The terms of office of the President and the President-Elect shall be one year. The terms of office of the members elected to the Executive Board shall be three years, rotated so that four terms expire one year, five the next, and five the third. Each regular term of office shall coincide with the date of the annual meeting.
2. As early in each year as practicable, the Executive Board shall select a Nominating Committee consisting of seven members of the Association, six of whom shall be members other than those of the Executive Board, one of whom shall be designated as chair, and the seventh member shall be the immediate Past President who shall provide the committee with insight on current directions and policy of the Board to aid the committee in its selection process. The names of the Nominating Committee shall be published with an invitation to the general membership that suggestions of nominees for various offices be sent to the chair of the Committee. The Committee shall be instructed to present to the Secretary-Treasurer at least thirty (30) days prior to the annual meeting of each year a nominee for the presidency, a nominee for the office of President-Elect who will be nominated for the presidency in the ensuing year, and two or more nominees for each other elective office to be filled, the nominees being active members of the Association. Candidates for President and President-elect shall be active members of both the national and a local chapter (if one is available in their geographic area) and shall be aware of the policies and directions of the Association. Selection and method of nomination shall ensure membership on the Executive Board of individuals drawn from several disciplines, professions, and types of research activity represented within the Association. Selection of candidates for President and President-Elect shall follow a rotation reflective of the composition and diversity of the Association. The names of the candidates for President and President-Elect shall be submitted by the Nominating Committee and confirmed by the Executive Board. Space shall be provided on the ballot for an individual voter's alternative choice. In the case of a vacancy occurring on the Nominating Committee after initial selection, the President, in consultation with the President-Elect, may appoint a new member to complete the nominating process.
3. Elective officers shall be chosen through elections to be held during the last six months of the term of office of their predecessors under the rules determined by the Executive Board. Each member shall be given the opportunity to vote by mail. The results of the election shall be tabulated, certified and announced by the Secretary-Treasurer under the supervision of the Executive Board.
4. The Association shall have the following officers who shall be appointed by the Executive Board: a Secretary-Treasurer, an Editor-in-Chief, a Counsel, and such other committee chairs as shall be necessary to conduct the business of the Association. The appointments to each of these offices shall be for three years, which may be terminated for cause by a majority vote of all voting members of the Executive Board. In the case of a vacancy, the President may make an interim appointment, said appointment to last until the next meeting of the Executive Board. The Editor shall, with advice of the President and Executive Board, appoint an Editorial Committee whose members shall serve for three year terms.
5. The Executive Board shall consist of the President, the President-Elect, the Secretary-Treasurer, the Editor, the Chair of the National Chapter Advisory Committee (NCAC), the previous year's president, and fourteen elected members, providing that the Secretary-Treasurer and the Editor shall not be entitled to vote. The chairs of other committees or other members with information for the Executive Board may be invited to participate in the deliberations of the Board on a non-voting basis.
6. The President may appoint a Program Committee for the annual meeting, consisting of the Editor, the previous year's president, the Secretary-Treasurer, and representatives of the several areas of interest of the Association's membership. Two vice-chairs shall be appointed, representing academics and practitioners, respectively. The President shall be the Chair of this Committee.
III. Duties of Officers
1. The President of the Association shall preside at all business meetings of the Association and at all meetings of the Executive Board and the Program Committee. In case of disability, the duties shall devolve upon the President-Elect pending cessation of such disability or until expiration of the term.
2. The Secretary-Treasurer shall keep the records of the Association; receive and have the custody of the funds of the Association, subject to the rules of the Executive Board; and perform such other duties as the Executive Board may assign.
3. The Executive Board shall have control and management of the funds of the Association. It may fill vacancies in the list of officers, and may adopt any rules or regulations for the conduct of its business not inconsistent with the Constitution or Bylaws or with rules adopted at the annual meeting. It shall act as a committee on time and place of the annual meetings and perform such other duties as the Association shall delegate to it. A quorum shall consist of seven voting members. Under extraordinary circumstances such as the need to appoint a new officer or committee chair, to remove an officer, or other situation requiring prompt action, the Executive Board may assemble by telephone or other electronic means upon forty-eight (48) hour notice. The quorum requirements remain the same as for a regular meeting. Members who miss three (3) consecutive meetings may be removed by action of the President. The President may appoint a replacement to complete the balance of the vacated term. Filling the seat does not preclude the incumbent from being nominated for a regular term.
4. Each year the Executive Board shall set the date of the program, annual business and membership meeting.
IV. Organization
1. LERA is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.
2. No part of the net earnings of the organization shall inure to the benefit of, or be distributed to its members, trustees, officers, or other private persons, except that the organization shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered and to make payments and distributions in furtherance of the purposes set forth in the purpose clause hereof.
3. No substantial part of the activities of the organization shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and the organization shall not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distribution of statements) any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office. Notwithstanding any other provision of this document, the organization shall not carry on any other activities not permitted to be carried on (a) by an organization exempt from federal income tax under section of any future federal tax code, or (b) by an organization, contributions to which are deductible under section 17- (c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.
4. Upon the dissolution of the organization, assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government, or to a state or local government, for a public purpose. Any such assets not disposed of shall be disposed of by the Court of Common Pleas of the county in which the principal office of the organization is then located, exclusively for such purposes or to such organization or organizations, as said court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes.
V. Local Chapters
1. The Association will recognize as affiliated local chapters, by means of certificate of recognition, a local organization formed to advance the purposes of the Association, provided the Bylaws of the local group are consistent with those of the Association and require the officers of the local chapter to be members of the Association, and provided further that no financial obligation of the local chapter shall be a contingent obligation of the Association. Student chapters must have a faculty advisor who must be a member of the Association.
2. Any local group desiring to affiliate with the Association will send its request for affiliation, together with a copy of its bylaws and a list of its program, to the Secretary-Treasurer, who shall present the request to the Executive Board. The Executive Board may accept or refuse the affiliation.
3. The Association will not interfere with the activities of the local chapters, provided that they conform with the purposes of the Association. The affiliation of any local chapter, whose program or activities are inconsistent with the aims and purposes of the Association, may be terminated by vote of the Executive Board. The Executive Board may declare a chapter inactive and its charter lapsed.
4. Each local chapter will pay an annual fee to the national LERA.
5. All local chapter officers and Executive Board members shall be members of the National Association, and all National Executive Board members shall be members of a local chapter where one is geographically available.
6. Chapters shall be represented on the Executive Board by the Chair of the National Chapter Advisory Committee (NCAC). The NCAC shall consist of between five (5) and twelve (12) members broadly representative of the geographical regions and membership of the local chapters. The committee members shall be active members of both the national Association and a local chapter. The chair shall be elected for a three year term from among and by the members of the NCAC. The NCAC shall establish operating rules and procedures for its governance that are not inconsistent with the Constitution, Bylaws, and operating procedures of the Association. These procedures shall be subject to review and approval by the Executive Board.
VI. Amendments to the Constitution or Bylaws
1. Amendments that have been approved by the Executive Board may be adopted (a) by a majority of the members present at the annual business meeting of the Association or (b) by a majority of the votes cast in a mail ballot authorized by the Executive Board.
2. The Executive Board shall report to the annual business meeting any amendments proposed during the year, but not approved for adoption. Upon motion of any member present at the annual business meeting, the Executive Board may be instructed by majority vote to submit such amendment to mail ballot to the membership.
